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One of every four children in the United States has a parent wrestling with drug or alcohol addiction, based on national data, and is at risk of developing a substance use disorder later in life.

To begin to break that cycle and give adults in those kids’ lives the tools to make a difference,  West Virginia University’s  Project TRAIN has expanded its program, originally focused on helping K-12 teachers support students affected by addiction, to youth camps statewide.

When it comes to keeping the lines of communication open after a divorce, West Virginia University researchers Jonathon Beckmeyer and Jessica Troilo say you can have far too much of a good thing.

Their study of 708 divorced parents of children under 18 shows that even innocuous chitchat between divorced co-parents can put children’s well-being at risk. Simply put, “limit any communication to shared parenting issues,” the researchers suggest.

A West Virginia University instructional design expert is looking to break the code of the traditional elementary school classroom.

Here is what Ugur Kale envisions: In an upper-elementary classroom in West Virginia, kids are learning about food access. It’s an issue that affects many of their families, who might purchase groceries with WIC or live nowhere near a supermarket.

A College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences faculty member and a CPASS alumna are members of an international team that received the highly competitive Prince Faisal Bin Fahad Global Award for Sports Research by the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Sport and Leader’s Development Institute.

Dana Voelker, CPASS associate professor of sport, exercise, and performance psychology and Amanda Visek, associate professor at The George Washington University (WVU PhD SEP 2007), aim to advance youth sports in Saudi Arabia. The group includes Lisa Delpy Neirotti, The George Washington University, and Mohummed Alkhraji, King Saud University.

Many mass killings are rooted in some sort of grievance — real or imagined unfair treatment — a  West Virginia University expert said in the aftermath of the Texas elementary school shootings that left more than 20 dead.

Jeff Daniels, a professor of counseling, helped develop a model that focuses on detectable behaviors of school and workplace violence perpetrators based on research in an upcoming book. Daniels, who studies school violence, hostage crises and police ambushes, said the model aims to identify people “going down what we call the fatal grievance pathway.”

Jose María López-Gullón, a visiting scholar from the University of Murcia, Spain, will spend the next four months collaborating with Gonzalo Bravo, associate professor in the College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, examining the role of volunteers in amateur sport organizations.

Initially, Bravo and López-Gullón planned to study volunteers within medium-sized sport events, but then they decided to examine volunteers serving in amateur sport organizations. This shift was in part due to the lack of access to sport events due to COVID. Additionally, the decision was influenced by a casual observation López-Gullón encountered during his first month in Morgantown.

The Association for Applied Sport Psychology has awarded a seed grant to Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology third year graduate student Tommy Minkler. The grant is intended to provide support for AASP members, especially early career professionals/pre-tenured faculty or students, for their community outreach/research endeavors.

Minkler’s study is titled ‘Drivers of Change in Mindfulness-Based Interventions with Athletes: Investigating the Influence of Dosage, Readiness, and Attitudes.’ Minkler says that his research explores wellbeing and performance outcomes along with the factors that contribute to them, during and after mindfulness interventions with college student-athletes.

Multiple College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences faculty, students and alumni participated in the first hybrid National Association for Kinesiology in Higher Education conference, Jan. 5-8, 2022 in Phoenix, Ariz. CPASS stakeholders highlighted their expertise through presentations and lectures while receiving recognition for passion in the field.

The 2022 NAKHE conference featured how leaders can effectively use technology and creativity in meeting the challenges resulting from the pandemic and other ongoing national issues. COVID-19 has upped the ante for higher education administration and faculty in dealing with difficulties related to budget cuts, diversity, inclusion and legislation.

CPASS Physical Education and Kinesiology Assistant Professor Samantha Ross is one of seven WVU faculty selected to receive Universal Design of Learning grant. The grants, provided by WVU Teaching and Learning Commons, include a stipend of $3,500 to support design or redesign of courses to meet the principles of UDL.

As a teacher-researcher, Ross says that she is motivated to implement and evaluate evidence-based practices to her classrooms and the preparation of future physical activity professionals. “Applying Universal design for learning principles to the classroom strengthens my direct support of student learning and provides student’s personalized pathways to success. As a third-year faculty, I am still developing as a teacher,” she said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many faculty members of the College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences were asked to teach more often and in different ways. Despite these increased obligations to our students, faculty maintained a high level of productivity in research.

This report describes research productivity in 2020-21 and major initiatives from the last year in research and grant-writing.